Any Range Rover techs or owners?
 

I've had my eye on the 3rd gen (02-12) Range Rovers for a while. I love the styling of the truck and the interior of the non-sport model.

I've been combing the internet casually for the past few weeks doing some research on the different models and engines. The consensus is that they're all unreliable junk and the maintenance/repair costs will eat a guy alive. It's just that LR is one of those brands that everyone hates on and I'd like to hear some unbiased testimonials from people who have actually owned these trucks or worked on them. Any particular engines or model years that I should be narrowing my search down to?

RS, school me on RRs..

thanks!

I work at a rental company and we have a few range rovers -- the HSE (~2005), a Sport Supercharged (~2006) and the newer evoque.

The stuff people have told you is not fictitious -- it's not uncommon for a rangerover to come off a rental and then immediately be sent off for repairs lol. I think most of them were around 60-70,000kms when they were sold off/auctioned because keeping them was getting too expensive. Might want to take what I say with a grain of salt, but contrary to popular belief we were pretty good with making sure they all got regular maintenance and they still had lots of issues.

Good on you for looking at the range rover supercharged though .... such a timeless design

They are known for being unreliable. Rarely there might be an owner coming out saying his was bulletproof, but it's definitely not a car you want to stretch your wallet to obtain, only to be destroyed later by the maintenance expense.

I heard most repairs done involve electrical problems?
is that true or is it also mechanical? or mix of both?

Dealership I worked at had a few of these roll through the doors, and they had their fair share of problems...

Like mentioned above, do not stretch your budget to get one of these cause odds are repair bills will kill you.

My father has a land rover LR2. He drove 200k on it and didn't have any major problem with it. There was one problem with that car that was slight annoyance (the car wheel or bearings seemed to exhibit a loud hum at high speeds). This is just my personal input and his car might be the special case.
Posted via RS Mobile

Flagella hit the nail on the head. Now maint isnt gonna be a gang rape if you stay away from MCL tho. Just a good capable shop can do it and not charge $150 an hour and hose for parts. I've seen MCL charge $12000 for timing chains on an XKR.

couple quick charts for you

http://www.blog.automotiveaddicts.co...ower-vds-1.jpg

http://blogs.cars.com/.a/6a00d83451b...59d3970c-800wi

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog....ility-2011.jpg

So no, Land Rover's shitty reliability is not a myth. Buy one if you enjoy driving loaners all the time. I had a 1 year old RR Sport and it spent more time at MCL getting warranty work done than it did on the road.

A buddy of mine got a '13 RR Sport Autobiography. Has been bulletproof for 6000kms so far with the exception of an early brake job and rattling speakers everywhere.

He tells me if maintenance doesn't kill you first when you buy one of these, gas will :lawl:

I had a friend with one and it was always in the shop for the air suspension, among other things. Luckily he owned a tow truck, lol.

Its unfortunate, because I also love the RR Sports. Love love love them.

I have a LR3 V8 HSE blah blah blah from the States.. it is not horrible, it seems a lot of the "problems" are firmware related... how I figured that? I have a habit of getting diagnostic tools for each car I own, so I have a VCM. When there are some improbable error.. I use it to reset the submodule in question (eg Terrain Response Error after a trip to the Mall :lawl:) .. Most of the time the problem just disappears. Yes, brakes etc needs to get replaced earlier, but jeebus it is about 700lb heavier than my X5! You definitely don't want to drive fast on twisties.

The fuel consumption is on par with other boxy V8 SUVs. It is one of the "smaller" SUVs that have the 7 passenger option. I often lend it out to family and friends, so I usually reset the whole thing before handing it over after tanking up. It has never left them stranded, never have a complaint. Nearly all the settings are at auto eg Terrain response etc. It is used heavily in the winter, so far no complaints. Parts etc are not too horrible in price, the only thing I do extra is give sensors when they need to be replaced.. extra heat shrink and wrap for protection ( a bit of strain relief). They are quite whimply manufactured.

Oh I think the most important part: If you are not using it for a few days, keep it on a battery tender... low voltage gives sensors funky readings, that causes all kinds of trouble... and oh, dont keep those cigarette power thing plugged in continuously also helps.

Thanks for your input guys. It's such a cool truck, really unfortunate that it has all these issues. I wonder how the new RR is gonna look a few years down the road..depreciation wise and reliability wise. Maybe LR got their act together on the latest one. It seems like LRs are a bad vehicle to own out of warranty.

It just happens that all the cars I want to own are extremely expensive or extremely unreliable..not a coincidence that all of them are British, lol.

Hey guys - my Range Rover Sport has about 70,000 KMs... I keep my vehicles immaculate and extremely well-maintained...

The car is like new. Since day 1 it has not had a SINGLE issue .... not one.... every electrical function, hardware component, etc., has been perfect. In fact, I have been so suspect of the run it has been on that I recently had it inspected and it they said it was like new... (suspension, undercarriage, engine, etc.).

I love my Range Rover Sport to pieces but the fuel costs are very high... I ride my bike in the summer and sometimes take Skytrain to work so then I am left with a beautiful Range that I really only touch every couple of weeks now...

You are a lucky rare one.

How much can you buy a 99 rover for? $4000 and up. Thats huge depreciation considering the purchase price when new.
I would not buy one unless I could work on it myself or somewhere else other then MCL and could afford the fuel consumption and depreciation. Cost of ownership with insurance maint and fuel is gonna be in the area of $10-15000 per year if you owned it from new for 10 plus years thats staggering.

If you guys are willing to drive to n van there's rovalution

Fuel.
 

Buddy has a 2012ish RR Supercharged. It drinks gas just like a Lambo Murcielago. Non-stop complaints about this. I don't think his fam has driven it enough to experience breakdowns etc, but I'd imagine it will cost an arm and a leg to repair once the warranty is out!

No warranty, no touch applies to any high end luxury car imo. There's a reason why these cars lose half their value once the warranty is done.

I wouldn't really hesitate buying a range rover because there are some trustworthy shops out there like juans in richmond or hesp auto in north van
Posted via RS Mobile

Range rovers are the special kind of cars that you're better off leasing than owning.